The invention relates to a culture tray for the rooting of young plants which has parallel arranged rows that accommodate downwardly depending or oriented pots which have holes in their base wall and which has a surrounding edge or wall enclosing the tray.
A well-known culture tray has pot-like hollows or pots which are located in rows arranged in parallel with one other, and which are open at the top and have an opening with a smaller diameter in their base. The smaller opening in the base serves to allow one to remove the young plant and its associated root impregnated ball of soil out of the pot-like hollow from the bottom and to allow surplus water to drain away. This culture tray has a rectangular shape and a surrounding edge or wall.
Another culture tray well-known from EP 0 657 096 A1 has two supports in the first row instead of the two outermost pots and, in the last row instead of the two second-outermost pots, two supports which are hollow, open at the bottom and oriented upwards. In this case, the two second-outermost pots in the last row are each provided with one supporting ring on the base and one centering attachment is provided at the top end of each support. The supports exhibit an opening in their walls pointing towards the culture tray. The supporting rings on the base of the two outermost pots and of the two second-outermost pots exhibit lateral recesses.
A great deal of water is required in order to water the plants in these well-known culture trays. For a variety of reasons, it is desirable to minimize the consumption of water specifically:
1. A high consumption of water has a negative influence on the greenhouse climate. Diseases (above all, fungal diseases) are promoted by this.
2. Water is not always available in a sufficient quantity.
3. Excessive irrigation will harm the plants, especially the leaves.
It is an object of the present invention to create a culture tray for which, in comparison to the prior art, a minimum of water is necessary for the watering of the plants.
The present invention is a culture tray for young plants to take roots, in which a multiplicity of pots, consisting of rows of individual pots, are hooked into transversely directed channels. The lateral top edges of the individual pots are shaped in such a way that they close the channels completely after the individual pots have been placed. The channels can be arranged in similar or dissimilar distances, where, for an enhanced irrigation between two adjacent channels or to the tray edge of the culture tray, areas of the tray base, which are part of the culture tray, are raised. The aforementioned areas are, in comparison with the channels or the placed multiplicity of pots, raised sloping to both sides. Thus, in case of artificial irrigation of the culture tray, this measure ensures that the water is evenly supplied directly to the individual pots at both sides of the raised areas. What is particularly advantageous, is that no water can remain on the raised areas and hence only the least amount of water required is used for irrigation, which is, subsequently, specifically favorable for a sensitive ecological system such as a greenhouse for young plants in the rooting process. The walls may reach up to or below the panel sections and turn into a surrounding edge.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the multiplicity of pots may be provided with at least one hole for the drainage and removal of the surplus water which hole is preferably located above the base wall of the channel. It is advantageous that the housing base wall has wall sections defining a bottom wall for each of said channels and said pots are provided with a bottom wall with at least one hole for the drainage of surplus water which pot bottom wall is spaced above the bottom wall of said channels and that the plant pots have top edges defining open top ends and wherein said culture tray has ledges on which said top edges of said pots are supported.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the opposite base sidewalls defining the channels may extend conically downwardly and the sidewalls of the multiplicity of pots may also extend conically downwardly.
In order to fit the culture tray to different kinds of plants with luxuriant foliage, the invention provides that the roof strips cover one or even several channels. Not only does this measure reduce the number of young plants or the individual pots placed but in spite also ensures an optimum irrigation by the water draining off over the roof strips. The areas between two channels and/or the surrounding edge of the culture tray are individually elevated in form of relatively flat round or pointed loops, which do not impair the irrigation or the plant growth, in order to support the roof strips. The roof strips are supported by said elevations at their lower edge and are thus safely positioned parallel to the channels. If exceptionally large plants are grown the roof strips can, in particular, be used to cover one or several channels. The shape of the areas between the channels of the culture tray or the roof strips should be selected so that it is located elevated opposite the channels and/or the multiplicity of pots sloping to both sides. Particularly suitable are either convexed, rounded, acute, triangular, trapezoid stepped or diamond shaped roofs. The various cross sections can also be combined with each other so that the aforementioned prerequisites are met to ensure, to a sufficient degree, the draining off of the water towards the individual pots.
Moreover, it is desirable that the pots each have two flanges at their tops which stick out on both sides and are supported on the stepped ledges. It is particularly advantageous that several culture trays can be hooked together in order to form one longer row of culture trays.
Furthermore, the invention relates to an assembly of culture trays arranged in a row consisting of several culture trays for the rooting of young plants with rows arranged in parallel with each other to accommodate pots oriented downwards with holes in the base of the pots and with a surrounding edge enclosing the culture tray whereby the culture trays are hooked to each other. Most desirably, the row of culture trays consists of one starting tray, at least one center tray and one end tray.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the starting tray is trimmed at its end oriented towards the row of culture trays, the end tray is also trimmed at its end directed towards the row of culture trays and that the center tray is trimmed on both sides in such a way that the starting tray and the end tray can be hooked into the adjacent center tray on one side and the center tray can be hooked on both sides into the adjacent starting tray or into the adjacent end tray or into another adjacent center tray.